In Lithuania, they hoped that the EU sanctions against Belarusian officials would be more ambitious. On Saturday, August 29, the 15min edition writes about this with reference to the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic Republic Linas Linkevičius.
In a conversation with reporters, he noted that during an informal meeting, an agreement in principle was reached at the EU level on the first package of sanctions against those responsible for falsifying the presidential elections in Belarus and the use of violence against protesters.
“It’s hard to say what size this list (of officials of Belarus – Ed.) Will be, but it looks like at the first stage it will not be the one I expected,” the Foreign Minister said.
The partners have previously agreed on a list of 20 people. However, the minister stressed that in the future the list will be expanded.
“This is not the end, everything will depend on the situation,” added Linkevičius.
On August 27, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that the foreign ministers of the EU countries during an informal meeting in Berlin would discuss individual sanctions on Belarus, but would not make decisions.
On August 19, the head of the European Council Charles Michel said that the European Union does not recognize the results of the presidential elections in Belarus and called on Minsk to find a peaceful way out of the situation. Also, the EU has allocated € 53 million to help citizens of the country.
After that, the Prime Minister of Belarus, Roman Golovchenko, called the financial assistance to the country from the European Union in the amount of € 53 million “not very generous.”